Heating-furnace



(No Modell.) 4 sheets-sheet 1.

AHOPKINS. HEATING FUR'NAGE. No. 355,169. Patented Dem-28,1886.

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(No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 2.

A.' HQPKINS. HEATING FURNAGE.

10.355,169. Patented Dec. 28, 1886.

(No Modem 4 sheets-sheet a.

A. HOPKINS. HEATING FURNAGE..

No. 355,169-, Patented Den. 28, 1886.

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A. HOPKINS. y

No. 355,169. Patented 1160.28; 1886:.

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UNITED STATES PATENT Fries.

ALFRED HOPKINS, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

HEATING-FURNACE,

SPECIFICATION forming part o Letters Patent No. 355,169, datedDecember 28, 1886.

Application filed March 6, 1886.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED HOPKINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Heating-Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear', and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to produce a heating-furnace in which air shall be heated by indirect radiation-that is, without any of the air-heating surfaces coming in contact with the products of combustion. I thus avoid the lpossibility of what is known as burning77 the air, and also absolutely prevent gas, smoke, or dust from the furnace from getting into the air-pipes or the hot-air chamber. In order to accomplish these results I have devised the novel construction, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, is a specification, numbers being used upon the drawings to indicate the several parts of the furnace.

Figure 1 is an elevation of the furnace complete; Fig. 2, a central vertical section, the point of view being ata right angle to that in Fig. 1; Fig. 3, a horizontal section on the line x .fr in Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is an elevation of the heating-chamber detached, a portion of the shell of said chamber being broken away to l,show the arrangement of the air-pipes and of the diaphragm.

1 indicates the outer shell or casing of t-he furnace, which may be of metal, as shown, or of brick, and may be of any desired shape, as oval, oblong, square, or round. For the purposes of my present invention it is deemed quite sufficient to illustrate a furnace having an ordinary metallic outer shell or casing.

2 is the inner shell or wall of the heatingchamber, and 3 the top wall of the heatingchamber,which is preferably made in the shape of a cone at the center, in order to increase the heating-surface and give greater strength to the wall.-

4 indicates the grate; 5, the combustionchamber; 6, the ash-pit; 7, the feeding-passerial No. 194.264. (No model.)

sage, which is preferably placed at a slight incline; and 8 the @linker-passage, the lower Wall of said passage having an opening, 9, through which clinkers may be raked down into the ash-pit.

10 is the dome of the combustion-chamber, which is of course made air-tight, the only escape therefrom for the products of combustion being through smoke-pipe 11, which leads out from the furnace and connects with the chimney in the usual manner.

12 is a damper in pipe 11, which, when closed, as in Fig. 2, wholly cuts off the direct draft and compels the products of combustion to pass into a pipe, 13, which passes downward, then under or around the ash-pit, then ascends up on the opposite side of the furnacedoors 'and connects again with smoke-pipe 11 on the opposite side of the damper, as is clearly indicated by dotted and full lines in Fig. 1.

It will of course be understood that the direct draft should only be used in starting the re or when it is very low, and that dampers may be used in pipe 13 to retard the ire should the draft be too strong. rIhese I have not deemed it necessary to show, as they form no portion of my present invention.

The air to be heated is supplied to the airpipes from below, the furnace being supported on legs, as I have shown, or provided with a cold-air box of any ordinary construction, which it is of course not necessary to show.

14 indicates the heating-chamber, which is inclosed by walls 2 and 3, and 15 the distributing or hot-air chamber, which lies above the heating-chamber` and is inclosed by the outer shell of the furnace. Theupper wall, 16, of the hot-air-chaniber is an inverted cone, the cone being filled with sand 17, or any similar substance that will become heated slowly and will hold the heat, so that, practically, no heat whatever will be radiated from the outer shell at the top.

18 is a diaphragm in the hot-air chamber, 95 which inclines upward slightly from the shell of the furnace, and is provided with a large central opening, 19. The object of this diaphragm is to throw the ascending currents of heated air into the center of the hot-air oham- Ico ber, instead of directly against the shell of the furnace, so that the outer current of air-that is, the current that ascends between the outer shell and the inner shell-will become thoroughly mingled with the hotter air received from the pipes before it passes out of the chamber, as will be again referred to.

20 indicates the usual hot-air pipes leading from the hot-air chamber to the rooms to be heated. As stated above, heatingchamber 14 is made practically air-tight. The air in this chamber is, of course, raised to avery high temperature by radiation from t-he walls and dome of the combustion-chamber, and as it cannot escape the heat is retained for a long time, thus e'ecting a great saving in the consumption of fuel. Suppose, for example, that it is desired to furnish air of a certain temperature to the rooms, having once raised the air to this temperature, it may be maintained there with a very small consumption of fuel, much less'in fact than would be required in other styles of furnaces. As stated above, the air to be heated is received from below in the usual manner, and passes through a series of pipes, 21, in the heatingchamber. These 'pipes are preferably made oval, as clearly shown in Fig. 3, and are set at an incline, as shown in Fig. 4. It will of course be un-v derstood, however, that these pipes may be round, square, or of any form best adapted to the shape of the furnace in which they are placed. By making the pipes oval or substantially in the form illustrated, I secure the greatest amount of heating-surface that is possible between the inner shell of the furnace and the wall of the combustion-chamber, it being of course essential that the pipes shall be far enough from each other to permit the body of air between them to be heated by radiation from the wall of the combustion-cham ber, and also to permit the heated air to come in contact with the wall of the heating-chamber-that is, the inner shell of the furnace. By setting the pipes at an incline, I greatly retard the passage of air through them, it being the tendency of heated air to ascend vertically, and it ofcourse follows that the air in the pipes is brought directly in contact with the overhanging walls of pipes 21, thus utilizing a large portion of the surface of said pipes to heat the air in them.

In order that the heat radiated from the inner shell of the furnace may be wholly utilized and that no heat whatever shall be radiated from the outer shell of the furnace, I provide an air-passage, 22, between said inner and outer shells, which is open at the bottom and which leads directly into the hot-air chamber, the air from passage 22 being diverted by diaphragm 15, so that it will become thoroughly mingled with the more-highly-heated air from pipes 21 before it can pass out to the rooms through pipes 20.

In practice I preferably divide heatingchamber 14 into two independent compartments by means of a horizontal diaphragm, 23,

which extends from the wall of thek combustion-chamber to the inner shell of the furnacepipes 21 passing through said diaphragm, as clearly shown in Fig. 2.

rIwo or more diaphragms may be used in the heating-chamber, if preferred. In practice, however, I have found one to be quite suicient. By dividing the heating-chamber into two or more compartments I provide that the lower portion of the walls of pipes 2l shall be as highly heated as the upper portion thereof, thus insuring that the entire surface of these pipes shall be utilized to raise the temperature of air passing through them.

It will thus be seen that by so constructing my improved furnace that the'air-passages are not brought into contact with iiame or the products of combustion, I insure that absolutely pure air, free from the gas, smoke, and dust of the furnace, shall be delivered to the rooms to be heated, and that the vitality of the air shall not be destroyetl--bi1rned,77 as it is c ommouly called-by being brought in direct contact with red-hot or very highly heated metal, the burning of air in the pipes being wholly impossible, it being, of course, a matter of no consequence whatever to what temperature the air in the heating-chamber is raised, as the air in said chamber cannot possibly get into the distributing-chamber.

It will, of course, be understood that the details of construction maybe varied within reasonable limits without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim- A 1. The combination, with the combustionchamber, of a closed heating chamber surrounding said combustion-chamber and a series of air-pipes which lead through said heat- IOO ing-chamber,whereby air in the pipes is heated v without said pipes coming in contact with the products of combustion.

2. The combination, with the combustionchamber and a closed heating-chamber surrounding it, of a series of air-pipes which lead through said heating-chamber, and a distributing-chamber located above theheating-chamber with which the air-pipes communicate.

3. The combustion-chamber and an air-tight heating-chamber surrounding it,- in combina.- tion with a distributing-chamberlocated above the heating-chamber and a series of air-pipes set at an angle, which lead through said heating-chamber and into the distributing-chamber.

4. The combustion-chamber and anair-tight heating-chamber surrounding it, in combination with a distributing-chamber located above the heatingchamber and a series of 'air-pipes leading through the heating-chamber and into the distributing chamber, said pipes being made oval in cross-section and set at an angle other than a right angle to the horizontal plane of the furnace, as and for the purpose set forth.

5. The combustion chamber and a closed IIO vided with a horizontal diaphragm dividing `it into compartments, in combination with a distributing-chamber located above the heatingchamber and a series of pipes which pass through the diaphragm and the heating-chamber and communicate with the distributing-- chamber.

6. The combustionchamber and an air-tight heating chamber lying between the inner shell, 2, and the combustion-chamber, the top wall, 3, of said heating-chamber being made cone-shaped at its center, for the purpose set forth, in combination with a distributingchamber and a series of 'air-pipes which lead through the heating-chamber and communicate with the distributingchamber.

7. The outer shell, the combustion-chamber, a heating-chamber surrounding it, a series of air-pipes leading throughy said chamber, and an air-passage, 22, between the outer shell and the heating-chamber, in combination lwith adistributing chamber above the heating-chamber,into which the air pipes and passage lead, and a diaphragm, 18, open at its center,which causes the air from passage 22 to -be mingled with that from the pipes.

8. The combustion-chamber, heating-chamber, air-pipes 21, and air-passage 22, in combination with the outer top shell, a distributing-chamber having a diaphragm, 18, with av central opening, 19, 'and Whose upper Wall is an inverted cone, and a non-conducting filling, 17, between the upper Wall of said chamber and the outer top shell of the furnace, as and for the purpose set forth.

9. The outer shell and the distributingchamber having diaphragm 18, open at its center, inpcombination with the combustion and'closed heating chambers, pipes 21, leading through the closed chamber, and passage 22,between the heating-chamber and the outer shell, by which heated air is supplied to the distributing-chamber.

10. The combustion and distributing chambers, in combination With a heating-chamber below the distributing-chamber and surrounding the combustion-chamber, a diaphragm, 23,' and a series of inclined pipes, 2l, through which air is supplied to the distributing-chamber.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses. f

ALFRED HOPKINS.

Witnesses:

A. M. Woosrnn, C. E. RUGGLEs. 

